CHRISTMAS 1974

My Dear Brethren in Christ;

Christmas seems always to demand so many things of us, and I am more and more convinced with the passing of the years, that these demands, stemming from a worldly view of the "season," cloud our eyes so that we cannot see Christmas. In the movie and the book, "The Little Prince," the fox gives the little prince a secret, which is; "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." So, my beloved parishioners, I wish that I possessed some magical power that could give you eyes to see with your hearts what is essential concerning Christmas. Alas, I have but a mortal pen. In my grip it feels frozen. I am like the pilot in the aforementioned story, who recounts his attempt as a six year old to draw a simple picture depicting an elephant inside of a boa constrictor. NO one perceives what it is he has drawn. He returns to his paper and draws another picture clearly showing an elephant inside the boa constrictor. All the grownups advise him to lay aside his drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, to devote himself to sensible things like geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. The point is that the grownups wanted him to be sensible.

When I write to you about Christmas, I identify with the pilot of the "The Little Prince." To speak of god entering our world in a little baby is not sensible to the world. To many people, it is like showing an elephant in side of a boa constrictor. Yet to get at that which is invisible to nature's eye in the mystery of Christmas and to experience the true joys of this feast, we need to see what the world either does not or cannot see, as not only possible, but indeed as the wonder of wonders. Beneath the tinsel and bows, beyond television specials about snowmen and reindeer, Christmas comes.

We do not wish you a merry Christmas, but we wish you a Blessed Christmas, in the essential truth of its real gift that reaches beyond rational men in their "sensible ways" to the gift of God's love entering our lives with the birth of a child 2000 years ago.

A Blessed Christmas to All,

Fr. Col+